Companies want to hire people who want this job, not just a job. If you have candidates with job histories making $50,000 per year (or more) and say they are now interested in a $7 an hour job, you know that these people are desperate and will walk about the door as soon as they possibly can. If that’s not true, you need to make that clear when you apply.

I know, I know you can’t make that clear when you’re filling in the application at the kiosk near the customer service desk. That’s why, it turns out, you may need to network yourself into a minimum wage job, the same way you would into a higher level job.